02/01/2014 World News Today

This is BBC World News Today. I'm Tim Willcox.

A major blow for Iraq's security forces as militants linked to

al-Qaeda take control of parts of two major cities. Iraqi special

forces are battling militants in Fallujah and Ramadi who've seized

police stations, freed prisoners and set up checkpoints.

The first of the helicopters to take us home! Rescued at last after a

Christmas on ice. 52 people are airlifted from their ship, which has

been stuck in the Antarctic for a week.

Also coming up: Celebrity chef Nigella Lawson speaks out about the

fraud trial of her assistants, in which she was accused of regularly

using cocaine. To have not only your private life

but distortions of it put on display is mortifying.

And forget about the Great Wall. China now boasts an engineering feat

fit for the 21st century. We go for a ride.

Hello and welcome. Iraqi special forces have launched a major

operation to try and reclaim two cities which have come under the

control of militants linked to al-Qaeda. The Islamic State of Iraq

and the Levant - SIL - have reportedly captured several police

stations in Fallujah and Ramadi, both in Anbar province, taken

weapons, freed prisoners and set up checkpoints. It comes as the United

Nations claimed 2013 was the deadliest year in Iraq since 2008,

with more than 7,800 civilians and 1,000 members of the security forces

killed in violence there. Rafid Jaboori reports.

It is the first time since the withdrawal of the US forces that the

Iraqi government has lost control of two major cities. Significant parts

of Ramadi and Fallujah in Anbar province have fallen to the militant

fighters of Al-Qaeda, but the government is fighting to reading

them. Tension has been high since last week in the heartland of

Iraq's Sunni majority -- minority. On Monday, protest camp in Ramadi

was dismantled. The Sonys have been protesting against the Shia

government for months. But the government has now secured

significant backing from Sunni tribal leaders. Last year was the

most violent year in Iraq since 2008, with thousands killed and

injured, mainly in attacks on Shia areas and security forces by

Al-Qaeda. With the support of tribal leaders, the government might be

able to regain control of Anbar, but the long-running problems in the

Sunni areas will need more comprehensive political deals.

In another sign of instability in the country, a suicide bomber has

killed at least 12 people and injured more than 75 at a market 70

kilometres north-east of Baghdad. Brad Blakeman is Professor of

Politics and International Affairs at Georgetown University in

Washington. He was also a member of President George W Bush's senior

staff from 2001 to 2004. Thank you for joining us on the programme.

America has sent 75 missiles and is talking about sending some Eagle

surveillance drones as well. Should it be doing more, given what is

happening in Iraq? Well, President Obama has made it clear that he is

not going to do more, and it is up to the international community now

to step up. We will help the best we can, but it is up to the Iraqis now

to stand up for themselves, and if they can't do it after all the

opportunity that the United States and Britain and other countries have

given to them, then they need to meet their own fate. So specifically

with the United States, do you agree with President Obama's stance? The

missiles and drones are some things, but what about more help in terms of

surveillance and into full -- infiltration. We should make sure

that the allies do not get a foothold in Iraq that they seem to

be getting in some of these areas in Fallujah and Ramadi. So it is in our

allies' interest to make sure that this doesn't happen and help them to

be self-sufficient enough to get the job done so that our allies will not

have to go in and augment that with troops or other support. What about

the sectarian split? Do think international pressure should be put

on them to make the Sunnis more represented within Iraq? There are

internal and external factors, a lack of representation in Iraq, and

externally, the war in Syria. And that is where the UN could be of

great value, to bring reconciliation to factions that have broken off. It

is incumbent on the UN under its charter to do that, which they are

charged to do, which is to go in and bring the parties together, and get

the current government to acknowledge that things must change

in Iraq, there must be not only an acknowledgement, but policies must

change in order for them to bring stability and peace within their own

borders. What about the role of Iran and Saudi Arabia here as well. What

sort of international leveraged can be put on them, especially given the

apparent rapprochement between the United States and Iran? There is no

question about it that outside forces are instigating a lot of the

violence within Iraq, and that has got to stop. We have to secure as

best we can and help them with their borders, and bring pressure up on

outside nations who are causing a lot of the mischief within Iraq, and

unfortunately, we have taken our foot off the sanctions, which are

starting to be of great significance in Iran. And I think our president

has been making a great misstep in taking his foot off some of the

sanctions, because it is not in the interests of the region, and it may

not even be in our interests that it was done. This has led to the deaths

of more than 8000 civilians. I wonder if there is any moral

necessity for America to take part in this, and how optimistic are you

that this will ever be resolved? We have had the threat of civil war so

many times before. Well, let's take a look in America's history. When we

declared independence, it took was 11 years to get our act ever, and

within 100 years of our independence, we had a civil war,

600,000 Americans dead, brother against brother. You cannot will

civility, it has to be earned. But only if it is going to mean

something and it will be the lubricant well thought out, and just

to do something to say that we did something is not enough. We have to

have results if we are going to do anything. Thank you very much indeed

for joining us on the programme. Sectarian violence has also flared

up again in Lebanon. Tensions heightened between Sunnis and Shias

because of the war in neighbouring Syria. In the last few hours, at

least six people have been killed in a car bomb attack in a southern

suburb of Beirut, a stronghold of the Shia militant group Hezbollah.

It comes just days after a Sunni and a critic of Hezbollah was killed by

a car bomb. Our correspondent Corine Torbey is at the scene and we'll get

the latest from her in just a few minutes.

Now to the crisis in South Sudan, where fierce fighting continues even

as efforts to end the violence get under way. Delegations from the

warring factions led by President Salva Kiir and his former deputy

Riek Machar are meeting for peace talks in the Ethiopian capital,

Addis Ababa. Aid agencies say many civilians inside South Sudan are in

desperate need of help and shelter. They estimate up to 75,000 people

have gathered on the banks of the Nile looking for help, after

crossing by boat from the town of Bor. Our correspondent Alastair

Leithead is at the camp. We don't know exactly how many

people have made the trip across the Nile river that is just behind me

here, but it is more than 75,000 people. That is like a sports

stadium full of people suddenly arriving here, and this is where

they are ending up. They are coming here and just sitting under the

trees. This is the only shelter they have got. And this goes all the way

down this bank of the Nile, all the way in for a couple of miles into

that area, huge numbers of people. And they have nothing. They grabbed

what they could, came here without much food. And the water isn't

clean. These guys here with these buckets on their head, that is water

collected from the Nile, dirty, bad water. On this side, we have a

clinic that has been set up by Medecins Sans Frontieres, two small

clinics with a handful of staff, and they have been trying to deal with

increasing numbers of people coming in with really bad diarrhoea, among

the many children, and we have heard of babies who have died of diarrhoea

because there are no facilities here. In the background here, you

can make out the first signs of aid coming in. This is truck loads of

food, the committee internationally of the Red Cross have come in and

brought food and supplies, and they are trying to do this in an

organised way. You can see the queues of people waiting, organised

by which area they are from to try to make sure that this is given out

fairly to those people who need it most, but more needs to come. It is

a five-hour drive of a bad roads to reach this area, and the UN is

already aware of the situation. It is a humanitarian crisis. The

fighting is continuing across the river. There are people over there

who can no longer come over on boats because it is too dangerous for

them. Even to get here where there is nothing is better than being in a

town held by the anti-government forces, and there is a serious risk

of more intense fighting breaking out in the days ahead.

He's been in a coma and vegetative state since 2006, but doctors in

Israel say the condition of former Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon has

worsened in the past 48 hours. Doctors say his organs are failing

and his life is in danger. From Jerusalem, Kevin Connolly reports.

At the medical centre near Tel Aviv, Israel waits anxiously for a medical

bulletin on the health of the former Prime Minister, who has been in a

coma for eight years. When the news comes, it is not good.

TRANSLATION: Mr Ariel Sharon shows some signs of deterioration in the

following two days, with some critical miss function, malfunction

of some of his organs, including his kidneys. He is under treatment, but

we feel that the situation is critical, and some danger is

expected for his life. Ariel Sharon's life may be slipping

away now, but in his heyday, they called him the bulldozer. The

forceful soldier and politician saw himself as an uncompromising

defender of his country's interests, in war and in peace. We remember his

contributions, sacrifices he made to ensure the survival and the

well-being of Israel, and I have many personal thoughts about my

meetings with him, on many different occasions. Always robust and strong

and clear about his position. His name may be for ever associated

with the massacre inside Palestinian refugee camps, carried out by

Christian militia in Lebanon during Israel's invasion of 1982, but Ariel

Sharon's life story was bound up with a history of his country from

the moment of its birth. He fought in the war of independence in 1948.

Israel's enemies hated Ariel Sharon, but people will remember him

as someone whose career dated back to the very foundation of their

state. Now they wait with concern as his fate again hangs in the balance.

Much attention is also focused on the hospital in France, where former

seven-time Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher is still

being treated for head injuries following a skiing accident on

Sunday. He's been in a critical condition after falling and hitting

his head on a rock. He received a visit on Thursday from the head of

the FIA, Jean Todt, who was also his boss during his time at Ferrari.

It's Schumacher's 45th birthday on Friday.

Let's get more now from Lebanon, where a bomb has exploded in a

southern suburb of Beirut, killing at least six people. It was very

close to the Central office of Hezbollah. We can go to the scene

now and speak to the BBC's Corine Torbey. This is likely to stoke

sectarian tensions there even more, isn't it? Yes, a lot of tension,

especially as this is not the first attack in this area, but also within

Lebanon an last Friday, a former finance minister was also

assassinated, and the security situation is believed to be

deteriorating by the day in this country. In terms of the group

behind it, this is seen as tit-for-tat, is it? As the sectarian

nature of the Civil War in serious bills over the border? Well, there

is a wide belief that what is happening in Lebanon is very much

linked to the situation in Syria. What happened today, many people

think that it is a deterioration for Hezbollah's role in Syria, and its

involvement in some of the troops in the Shia party alongside government

forces in Syria. Lebanon has also its own problems, and it is a very

congregated situation, and it is very hard to understand what is

happening. -- a complicated situation. People are trying to make

sense of all of this violence that is taking hold of the country. Not

helped by the fact that Lebanon has been paralysed politically. This is

a very divided country, not only along political lines, but on

sectarian lines. Lebanon has been without Government for around nine

months. Political parties are unable to come together. There are real

fears that amid all of this in security, and made all of this

division, the situation might go further and further. Thank you.

Let's bring you some breaking news. About the killing of a Briton and a

New Zealander, both gunshot wounds, in western Libya, that is according

to a security source on writers news agency. The body was found on the

coastal area. It is about 100 kilometres west of Tripoli. At ACAS

Park complex. -- at ACAS complex. Police in South Africa have begun a

murder investigation into the death of a leading role and an opposition

figure Patrick Karegeya whose body was found in a hotel room. They said

that he may have been strangled. The former intelligence chief Fred

Rwanda after he was accused of plotting against his former ally

President Paul Kagame -- President Paul Kagame.

In the upmarket district, Patrick Karegeya came to this hotel on

Wednesday to meet a man from Rwanda whom he said to have trusted.

Yesterday, he was found dead in one of the hotel rooms. The police have

launched a murder inquiry. When the police were called, police were

given the possibility that he might have been strangled and a bloody

Tower was found on the scene. Patrick Karegeya fought against Paul

Kagame with the random picture that front. After the 1994 genocide, he

was Rwanda's external intelligence chief. He fell out with...

In 2007, he went into axe out in South Africa, where he was granted

political asylum. Together with a former army chief he formed a new

opposition party, The Rwanda And National Congress. Undoubtedly an

assassination. Patrick Karegeya did not have any problems with people in

South Africa. He didn't have any differences within the organisation.

We also know... This week's Kelling has thrown the spotlight on the

Rwanda and axe Isles who had in the past been warned of attacks on them.

The government continues to deny trying to kill its political

opponents. All 52 passengers on board a Russian

ship that has been stuck in the Antarctic have finally been rescued.

The research vessel became trapped in the ice on Christmas eve during a

fierce storm. Ice breakers made attempts to reach the strip ship,

but were awarded. Helicopters were used to carry passengers to a rescue

ship. Look at that. What a handsome craft

that is. It was the site that everyone had

been waiting for, the first rescue helicopter descending onto the same

eyes that had kept me and all on board the ship, the Akademik

Shokalskiy, stranded for over a week.

Previous attempts to bring about the rescue of the scientists and

tourists on board had been aborted due to poor weather. Finally, the

skies were clear. The first of their helicopters to take us home

passengers were taken to an Australian icebreaker. The rescue

operation lasted several hours. I was one of those who made this

journey. You were watching the last group of people that you have been

ferried from the Russian vessel through about a 15 minute wait

knuckle ride helicopter ride to just outside the Australian icebreaker.

Scientists on board the Akademik Shokalskiy had been recreating the

journey of Douglas Mawson and his 1911 voyage to Antarctica. On

Christmas Eve, thick flows of ice judge and by strong winds had left

the vessel unable to move further. Singing auld lang syne, expedition

members celebrated New Year by working towards their own rescue.

We're getting the team to stamp down on this snow and ice so the Chinese

helicopter can reach us. Finally, the rescue could go ahead.

The Aurora Australis is now breaking through the ice. The eventual

destination, the Australian state of Tasmania.

For the crew of the Akademik Shokalskiy, the weight remains. They

will have to hold out until the ice surrounding the ship breaks out.

That could be many more weeks. Pakistan's former president has been

taken to hospital with heart problems. He was due to appear in

court with treason charges when he reportedly fell ill. A spokesman

said he is conscious and is being examined by military doctors.

Japan's Coast Guard has rescued a Chinese man who tried to reach a

bunch of disputed islands by hot air Berlin. The islands are known by

Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China and are administered by Tokyo.

Nigella Lawson has said it was mortifying to have details of her

personal life and drug-taking revealed in court. Speaking in her

first interview since her assistants were cleared of

defrauding her and her former husband Charles Saatchi of hundreds

of thousands of dollars, she told a US TV station that her only desire

in the court case was to protect her children.

We know you have had quite a year. The reason Nigella Lawson was on

this show was to talk about her cookery programme. One topic could

not be avoided. Her recent experience on the witness stand at

the trial of her two assistants To have not only your private life, but

distortions of it, is mortifying. There are people going through an

awful lot worse and to dwell on it or on any of it would be self-pity

and I don't like to do that. In that court appearance, she had been

accused of being a regular user of cocaine. She denies this. The

intense interest in her life had begun before the trial. These photos

of her and her now former husband Charles Saatchi appeared. Over the

months, her private life has become very public. That appearance in

court was bruising. She said, her reputation had been maliciously

vilified. Today, she reappeared more

reflective than angry, but still wounded by the experience. You are

Mack were only desire really was to protect my children. I can always do

that, but that is what I wanted to do. -- could not. Since then, I have

details of chocolate and had a good Christmas and iron into the New

Year. Time to move on. -- I am. Our feelings about the way she had been

treated in court were clear. -- her feelings.

The city of Shanghai claims to have set a new milestone, two new Metro

lines which opened this week will take its total length to more than

500 kilometres. The city has been laying new track at a pace faster

than anywhere else in history. But it is not the only Chinese city in

the grip of a tabloid frenzy. -- tunnelling.

It is hard to believe that the Shanghai Metro system is barely 20

years old. The pace of expansion has been

breathtaking. It is now the world's longest subway

network. With the opening of lines 12 and 16 this week, the first to

stretch over 500 kilometres. TRANSLATION: I used to take the bus.

That took ages. This is great. It saves me 30 minutes on my normal

journey. I am really happy. As of this week, Shanghai has 567

kilometres of operational track, leaving London languishing with 400

and New York even further behind with just 330: Matters. In the game

of my Metro is bigger than yours, China looks likely to remain the

champion. The Beijing Metro is now the world's second longest. 16

cities already have subway systems and at least 18 more have begun

construction. If nothing else, it is a sign that there is little letup in

big government spending, despite the talk of having to rebalance the

economy. This week, Shanghai announced a ban on passengers eating

on board, but the appetite for growth is undiminished. In the next

few years, another 230 kilometres will be added, more than the total

length of the Paris Metro. It goes on and on. But is it from

us. The weather is coming up. Goodbye.

After a brief lull, things are going downhill again very quickly with

more wind and rain over the next few days and we can expect more of the

same with an ongoing likelihood of flooding. This is the situation

right now. This set